Watching the videos of At the Drive-In’s first show in 11 years, I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. On the one hand, Cedric’s afro—a crucial element of the ATDI sound—is back in full force. On the other hand, the band just doesn’t seem to have the same energy and stage presence that they once did. In the three clips posted by Consequence of Sound, most of the band members stay pretty stationary, with Cedric occasionally dancing in place. Contrast this with footage of the band flailing around the Fireside Bowl like madmen in 1999—while still hitting 90% of the notes—and it’s like night and day. I suppose it’s unfair to expect these guys to still behave like a pack of drugged-out 20-somethings but for those of us who have spent the last 11 years pouring over footage of the band’s live shows, I imagine that this reunion will be something of a let-down. Then again, who knows, maybe they’re still shaking the cobwebs off?
On Beige Ford Tauruses, Carcinogenic Summer Jobs and the Impending At the Drive-In Reunion
In the summer of 1999, at the age of 16, I got a job working at the vehicle emissions testing station in Racine, Wisconsin. Wisconsin, like many states, requires that all licensed vehicles be tested for emissions every few years and for a couple of months, I was paid minimum wage to stand behind cars and collect noxious petrochemical fumes with a rubber hose. I soon fell in with a co-worker named Charlie, a spindly, dark-haired kid who played drums in a local hardcore band and sported a Black Flag tattoo on his right arm. Charlie drove a beige, late ’80s Ford Taurus that always seemed on the verge of collapse—whenever he drove the car on the highway, it was the duty of whoever was riding shotgun to hold the dashboard in place so that it wouldn’t detach at high speeds. That summer, Charlie and I wiled away many an afternoon chatting about music while pretending to mop the breakroom and it was during one of these sessions that I asked him what the single sticker on his bumper—a rectangular, sky blue piece of vinyl with the words “at.the.drive.in” printed on it—meant. He explained that upon first purchasing the car, he had decided to honor only one band by affixing their sticker to his Taurus and since there was no such thing as a Fugazi sticker, At the Drive-In had been chosen for the prestigious spot.
